Do Anxious Owners Have Anxious Dogs?

Have you ever returned from a difficult day and noticed that your dog seems unable to settle? Perhaps it follows you from room to room, scans the window, reacts more strongly on a walk or becomes unusually quiet.

It is tempting to say that the dog has “absorbed” your stress. Dogs are highly attentive to human movement, voice, routines and behaviour, so the idea feels plausible. But does scientific evidence support it?

Researchers at Linköping University investigated this question by measuring cortisol in the hair of dogs and their owners. Their findings suggest that long-term stress physiology can be synchronized within a dog-owner pair. The study is fascinating—but it is also easy to overinterpret.

Here is what the researchers found, what they did not prove and what dog owners can reasonably take from the results.

What does it mean when a dog’s stress is “synchronized” with its owner’s?

In this study, synchronization meant that owner and dog hair cortisol concentrations were statistically associated. When the owner’s hair cortisol was higher, the dog’s hair cortisol also tended to be higher.

It did not mean that the values were identical, that both experienced the same emotions at the same moment or that every stressful day immediately changed the dog’s hormones.

The researchers measured cortisol in hair rather than in a single blood or saliva sample. Cortisol becomes incorporated into growing hair, so hair cortisol concentration can provide a retrospective measure of cortisol exposure over a longer period. The proximal three centimetres of hair were analysed in this study.

This makes hair cortisol useful for studying long-term patterns. It does not function as a detailed diary. It cannot tell researchers exactly which event raised cortisol, whether the individual felt afraid, or whether a particular day was stressful.

How was the study conducted?

The study included 58 dog-owner pairs in Sweden:

• 33 Shetland sheepdogs;
• 25 border collies;
• 31 female dogs and 27 male dogs;
• 26 pet dogs and 32 dogs that actively trained and competed in agility, obedience or both;
• female owners only, with a mean age of approximately 46 years.

Hair was collected from the dogs and owners on two occasions: September or October 2017 and February 2018. These samples were intended to reflect cortisol exposure during preceding summer and winter months.

The owners also completed personality questionnaires about themselves and their dogs. Researchers collected information about routines, housing and training. Forty-four dogs wore an activity collar for one week so that the team could examine whether general physical activity might explain the hair cortisol results.

This design allowed the researchers to compare owner and dog cortisol across two seasons while considering breed, dog sex and lifestyle.

The main finding: owner and dog hair cortisol moved together

Owner hair cortisol was significantly associated with dog hair cortisol in both seasonal samples. In simple terms, dogs living with owners who had higher long-term cortisol also tended to show higher long-term cortisol themselves.

The relationship appeared in pet dogs as well as dogs involved in competition. During the summer sampling period, the association was stronger among competing dogs and among female dogs, although synchronization was still observed across the tested groups.

The authors suggested that dogs may mirror the long-term stress levels of their owners. That interpretation was supported by another part of the analysis: owner personality measures were associated with dog hair cortisol, while the measured dog personality traits had relatively little association with it.

However, “the dog mirrors the owner” remains an interpretation—not proof of a one-way biological transfer.

Physical activity did not explain the pattern—but that result has limits

The researchers found no significant relationship between dog hair cortisol and either:

• the amount of medium-to-high activity recorded by the activity collar; or
• the number of weekly training sessions reported by owners.

This matters because cortisol can be influenced by physical activity. The results suggest that the owner-dog association was not simply a case of active owners having active dogs with higher cortisol.

Still, the activity monitoring covered only one week and involved 44 dogs, while hair cortisol represented a much longer period. The study therefore cannot rule out every possible contribution from exercise, competition or shared daily activity.

Owners should not conclude that exercise is irrelevant to stress or that more exercise will solve chronic stress. This study did not test either claim.

Owner personality was related to dog cortisol—but not in a simple way

The owners completed a Big Five personality questionnaire. Three traits—neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness—were statistically associated with dog hair cortisol in parts of the analysis.

These results are easy to turn into misleading headlines. For example, a reader might assume that a more neurotic owner automatically produces a more stressed dog. That is not what the data showed. Higher owner neuroticism was actually associated with lower dog hair cortisol in both seasonal samples. Conscientiousness and openness were positively associated with dog hair cortisol only in the winter sample, and several associations differed according to the dog’s sex.

Personality traits are broad questionnaire measures, not diagnoses or moral judgments. The study did not establish which daily behaviours connected these traits with dog cortisol. The results should therefore generate further questions, not personality-based rules for choosing or raising a dog.

Season, breed, sex and lifestyle also mattered

The dogs had higher hair cortisol in the winter sample than in the summer sample. This seasonal increase was more pronounced among pet dogs than competition dogs. Shetland sheepdogs had higher winter hair cortisol than border collies, and female dogs had higher cortisol than male dogs when both sampling periods were considered together.

These findings show why cortisol should not be interpreted in isolation. A hormone measurement can vary with biological and environmental factors that do not have one obvious emotional meaning.

Higher cortisol is not automatically proof that a dog is frightened, unhappy or poorly cared for. Cortisol helps the body respond to demands and is part of normal physiology. Context, behaviour, health and change over time all matter.

Does this prove that a stressed owner makes their dog stressed?

No. The study found an association, not a demonstrated causal pathway.

Several explanations remain possible:

• Dogs may respond to their owner’s behaviour, voice, movement, attention or routines.
• Owners and dogs may react to the same household events or environmental pressures.
• The dog’s behaviour may influence the owner’s stress as well as the reverse.
• Lifestyle or relationship characteristics not fully measured in the study may affect both individuals.
• Some combination of these processes may operate over time.

The researchers argued that owner-to-dog influence was more likely because owner characteristics were more strongly associated with dog cortisol than dog personality was. That is a reasonable interpretation of the results, but the study was not designed to establish direction with certainty.

It also did not test whether dogs smell human cortisol, whether a dog consciously understands that an owner is stressed or which human signals might produce the synchronization.

What should dog owners do with this information?

The study did not test a training or stress-reduction programme. The following points are therefore practical implications, not interventions proven by this experiment.

1. Do not turn the finding into guilt

Every owner experiences stress. A difficult week at work does not mean that you have harmed your dog, and trying to appear perfectly calm at all times is unrealistic.

Instead, think about what your dog repeatedly experiences: sudden schedule changes, tense handling, hurried walks, frequent conflict, poor sleep or an unpredictable household may matter more than one bad mood.

2. Make daily life understandable

Predictable meals, walks, rest periods and household rules can reduce uncertainty. Predictability does not require a rigid minute-by-minute schedule. It means the dog has reliable patterns and receives clear information about what happens next.

3. Check your body before a difficult situation

Before passing another dog, greeting a visitor or entering a busy environment, notice your grip on the leash, breathing, posture and speed. Owners often shorten a leash or hold their breath in anticipation of a reaction. The dog may respond to those changes even if no words are spoken.

Use the space available, soften the leash where safety allows and follow a rehearsed plan. The goal is not to pretend that you feel nothing. It is to make your actions consistent and useful.

4. Watch the dog rather than guessing from your own feelings

If you are anxious, you may expect the dog to be anxious too. Look for observable evidence: body tension, orientation, willingness to eat, ability to sniff, response to familiar cues and recovery time.

This prevents two opposite mistakes—overlooking a dog that is struggling and assuming a relaxed dog must be stressed because the owner is stressed.

5. Protect recovery after demanding events

A busy trip, competition, visitor or difficult walk may be followed by a simpler day with sleep, sniffing and familiar activities. Recovery is not the same as isolation. It means reducing unnecessary demands and allowing the dog’s arousal to return to its usual level.

6. Address stress on both sides of the leash

If walks repeatedly leave both dog and owner distressed, the solution may involve environmental management, reward-based behaviour support and help for the owner—not simply more obedience practice for the dog.

A veterinarian can rule out pain or illness that may change behaviour. A qualified reward-based behaviour professional can help design safer exposure and handling plans. Owners may also benefit from practical support that makes care easier and more sustainable.

Important limitations of the research

This study provides evidence of long-term physiological synchronization, but its scope was narrow:

• Only 58 pairs participated.
• Every owner was female.
• Only border collies and Shetland sheepdogs were included.
• Participants were recruited through social media and personal contacts rather than randomly selected.
• The design was observational, so it could not establish causation or direction.
• Owners rated both their own and their dog’s personality, creating a risk of questionnaire bias.
• Activity was monitored for one week in a subset of dogs, while hair cortisol reflected a longer period.
• Hair cortisol measures cumulative hormone exposure; it does not identify a specific emotion or stressful event.

The results should not be automatically generalized to male owners, children, other breeds, multi-person households or dogs living under very different conditions.

Frequently asked questions

Can dogs sense when their owners are stressed?

Dogs can respond to many human cues, but this study did not identify which cues were involved. It showed that long-term hair cortisol levels were associated within the tested dog-owner pairs.

Do dogs absorb their owner’s cortisol?

The study did not show cortisol physically transferring from a person to a dog. “Synchronization” describes a statistical relationship between their measurements, not hormone absorption.

Does having anxiety make someone a bad dog owner?

No. The study did not assess whether owners were good or bad, and its personality results were complex. Higher neuroticism scores were associated with lower dog hair cortisol in this sample.

Can exercise break the stress connection?

The study found no significant association between dog hair cortisol and measured activity or reported training frequency. It did not test exercise as a treatment, so the result cannot tell owners how much exercise an individual dog needs.

Are female dogs more affected by owner stress?

The owner-dog cortisol association was stronger in female dogs during the summer sampling period, and female dogs had higher hair cortisol overall. One modest study is not enough to create a general rule for all female dogs.

Can a dog also affect the owner’s stress?

Possibly. Dogs and owners share routines and influence each other’s behaviour. This study’s authors proposed that dogs were mainly mirroring owners, but the observational design could not prove that influence moved in only one direction.

The most important thing to remember

Your dog does not need you to be emotionally perfect. It needs a life in which your signals, routines and responses are safe enough to understand.

The study’s most useful message is not “your stress is hurting your dog.” It is that a dog-owner relationship is a shared biological and social environment. Looking after that environment—through predictable care, calmer handling, adequate recovery and appropriate professional help—may support both members of the pair.

Scientific note: Hair cortisol is a long-term physiological measure, not a diagnosis of anxiety or a direct reading of emotional experience. Behavioural changes should be interpreted in context, and sudden or serious changes warrant veterinary assessment.

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